Dengue Control Workers to Protest in Front of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's House Tomorrow

New Delhi, August 2: Dengue control workers, who are currently on a strike, will protest in front of Delhi chief minister's official residence on Thursday to press for their various demands, including regularisation of services, a leader of their union said. Amid a rise in dengue cases in Delhi, scores of city municipal workers, who are at the forefront of the fight against vector-borne diseases, had began their indefinite strike on Monday.

"Our issues are not being heard seriously and, therefore, we are going to protest outside the CM house tomorrow. We want our demand to be met by authorities," Anti-Malaria Ekta Karmachari Union's president Devanand Sharma said on Tuesday. Delhi AAP Announces List of New Office Bearers, Bobi Kinnar Appointed State President of Third Gender Wing.

The ongoing strike by DBC workers could spell trouble for Delhi as there is a threat of rise in cases of dengue and other vector-borne diseases due to monsoon rains and recent flooding in parts of Delhi owing to increase in water levels of the Yamuna.

The water level of the Yamuna in Delhi, however, dropped below the warning mark of 204.5 metres on Wednesday, the first time after the river breached the threshold on July 9, following heavy rains in the national capital and the upper catchment areas.

There are about 3,000 dengue breeding checking (DBC) workers in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi besides 2,000 field workers. The union has about 2,800 DBC workers, as well as several field workers, as its members, Sharma said.

"We were hired in 1996 when Delhi had faced a massive dengue outbreak with over 10,200 cases and more than 420 deaths, the worst outbreak on record for Delhi. And, later in 2006, we were given the tag of DBC workers. But, our demand has been regularisation of our jobs, and MCD authorities are not doing it," he had earlier said.

He also claimed that only one casual leave a month is given to a DBC worker, though having too much workload. The employees have no health cover and no support is provided to the family members if an employee dies, he added.

"We also want that a job be given to next of kin if a DBC worker dies, and also we need health cards. We understand our role in combating dengue and malaria, but no one cares how much we are suffering," Sharma said. On the ongoing strike by DBC workers, Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi on Tuesday had told reporters that "we are considering their demands". "Some sanitation workers have been regularised," she added.

The mayor alleged that the problems being raised by the DBC workers today are long-standing and a result of the "misrule of the BJP" when it was in power in the MCD for the last 15 years. "We have spoken to the DBC workers. But, this is not the time to sit on a dharna," she said, alluding to rising cases of dengue in the city.

Delhi reported 56 fresh dengue cases in the past week, taking the tally to more than 240, according to a municipal corporation report on Monday. The report said 72 malaria cases were recorded in the January 1-July 28 period. The number of dengue cases reported in July so far stood at 121. In June, it was 40, and in May, it was 23. Delhi LG VK Saxena Approves Enhanced Honorarium for Advocate Mediators Working in Mediation Centers in District Courts.

"The mayor has given us an assurance on our demands. But we will continue our strike until we are given something in writing," the union's president said on Tuesday. Authorities at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have been appealing to these workers to reconsider their decision in view of the spike in dengue cases in the last few weeks.

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